So maybe you have a film franchise that is running out of steam. Maybe one of the stars wants out. Maybe his character was killed off to accommodate that. Maybe an actress has an idea for reviving that franchise with some panache and a dash of ovarian power. You can’t help thinking that one of… Read More »
ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
There could be many reasons to eschew the story that Lewis Carroll himself wrote about Alice and her adventures through the looking glass. Alas, Disney’s ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS does not find any of them. There is a perfect madness in that book that the script by Linda Woolverton fails to capture. Instead we… Read More »
BRIDE WARS
Sloppy writing and lazy direction are the hallmarks of BRIDE WARS, a stale story badly told. And that’s a shame because there is much to lampoon about the current state of the wedding business, where the complicated planning and execution can rival that of the Normandy Invasion during World War II. Perhaps it’s no accident… Read More »
LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS
Life is frustrating, exhilarating, confusing, astounding and unpredictable. So is LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS, a film with high aspirations and a slightly muddled follow-through. Based on Jamie Reidy’s book “Hard Sell: The Evolution of A Viagra Saleman” and set against the world of medicine as a business, it makes a piquant juxtaposition of Viagra and true… Read More »
RIO
RIO is as bright, fun, and dramatic as the Brazilian Carnivale where its final chase takes place. The animated musical as a whole is one exhilarating race to restore a bird to his human companion, thwart an evil gang of bird smugglers, and make sure that love conquers all. Eventually. The bird is Blu (Jesse… Read More »
ONE DAY
ONE DAY is an unconventional love story told in an unconventional style. The conceit of dropping in on them once a year on St. Swithins Day (July 15) to check their rocky progression from the 1980s through to the 21st century is as arch and penetrating as it is effective in stripping the story of… Read More »
RIO 2
RIO, an animated film about a snow-bound rare blue macaw and his human companion both finding love, is such a perfect little film that hearing a sequel was on the way filled one with trepidation. Fortunately RIO 2 bucks the usual law of diminishing sequel returns with a great story, even better new dangers, and… Read More »
ELLA ENCHANTED
Taking aim squarely at a society that demands that its women be obedient, or at least self-effacing, ELLA ENCHANTED, based on the classic book by Gail Carson Levine, uses the archetypal story of Cinderella to skewer convention with that most deadly and effective of weapons: humor. Theres not a trace of bile or vitriol, either,… Read More »
THE PRINCESS DIARIES 2: ROYAL ENGAGEMENT
Let me start by saying that I am a huge Anne Hathaway fan. And so it is that I found THE PRINCESS DIARIES 2: ROYAL ENGAGEMENT all the more irksome for squandering her talents so freely with this piffle. Actually, piffle is overselling it. The sequel picks up five years after the original left off.… Read More »
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN DVD
There has never been a film more heartbreaking, more beautiful, and more unforgettable than BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. The tale of two cowboys (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal) who unexpectedly fall in love in a time, the 1960s, place, the American west, as part of an economic class, working class, where such a thing is just not… Read More »